Critic Roundup: MARY SAID WHAT SHE SAID & SUMO — Review

An almost indescribably rich experience, not least of which because I’m hard pressed to describe what actually happens in it, a weekend run of Mary Said What She Said in New York instantly became one of the had-to-be-there theatrical events of the year. Based on Mary, Queen of Scots’ letters by Darryl Pinckney, and staged with exacting style by Robert Wilson, it is a 90-minute vehicle for Isabelle Huppert to once again prove what a force of nature she is. In what is essentially a monologue, and performed in French, Mary faces her impending execution with fierce disregard to logic or restraint. Not knowing the queen’s history does not hinder enjoyment here, as the focus is less on the characters she evokes than on the way she recounts them; sometimes raving, sometimes distraught, always at a ten.

The piece approaches something almost psychedelic, with Ludovico Einaudi’s melodramatic score heightening the intense colors Wilson displays on a large screen upstage. Mary often repeats herself in varying tones, and a few times her speeches are pre-recorded, allowing Huppert to perform robotic ballets that physicalize her madness.

It makes sense why the translated supertitles flanking three sides of the action should be placed just outside the proscenium. From its delicious first tableau (a shadowed Huppert, arms akimbo, her blood red lips the only aspect of her moving – and fiercely), Wilson creates some of the most sumptuous stage images I’ve seen; one trapping the actor in a tight space pumped with fog, with two enclosing glass panes curling the smoke into delirious shapes. These are not visuals that should at all be interrupted, but it does occasionally become an obstacle for non-speakers, especially when Huppert delivers walls of text at manic speed. And yet, darting your eyes back and forth winds up only adding to the hypnosis of the whole thing and, as Huppert’s excellent cadences exert their quick and easy mastery over the auditorium, it’s impossible to resist.

At the Public Theater, the new play Sumo initially takes a formally inventive approach, with playwright Lisa Sanaye Dring mostly eschewing character and plot in favor of rendering a world widely known yet seldom understood. Though Akio (Scott Keiji Takeda) is presented as the hungry young newcomer at a training facility in Tokyo, bound to be at odds with the highest-ranking Mitsuo (David Shih), the piece uses them and their surrounding wrestlers as vehicles to dramatize the details of their intricate environs. It’s a world built on strict traditionalism and discipline, yet buoyed by Toyota sponsorships and late nights drinking with interested businessmen. Its practitioners are devoted to becoming brute physical forces, and Dring artfully explores the external forces which would drive these men to near-ascetic lives. The cast pulls off a remarkable feat of both embodying these imperious, but gawked-at bodies, and turning in fine emotional performances, with Takeda standing out, alongside Ahmad Kamal and Earl T. Kim. But a wonky second act introduces several personal and interpersonal conflicts its structure cannot hold, unlike Ralph B. Peña and Wilson Chin’s typically dynamic work in its directing and scenic design, respectively. Several traumas are unearthed and the balance, so key to staying in the ring, is thrown off.

Mary Said What She Said performed a limited run through March 2, 2025 at NYU Skirball on LaGuardia Place in New York City.

Sumo is in performance through March 30, 2025 at the Public Theatre on Lafayette Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.